Donald Trump isn’t flip-flopping on immigration, though he’s not spelled out what he plans to do with the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants living inside the United States.
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Instead, Trump will tape a town hall event – also on Fox News – Tuesday night in Texas. Trump, who campaigned throughout the Republican primaries on a restrictive immigration platform, told Hannity “there certainly can be a softening” on immigration policy to accommodate people in the country illegally who have been contributing to society.
“We’re not looking to hurt people”, he said at the Austin, Texas, event.
He said the outgoing President Barack Obama got tremendous numbers of people out of the country using the existing laws and same was done by his predecessor George Bush.
“We are going to build a wall”, Trump shouted to the crowd.
He said that while Trump is willing to discuss immigration with him, Hillary Clinton’s campaign “has not gotten back” to him about doing an interview. He says until Mexico pays up, the US will increase visa and border crossing fees, “impound all remittance payments” from immigrants here illegally, and possibly increase tariffs or cut foreign aid.
Trump did not provide further detail in the clip released by Fox. Hannity then brought onstage some officials with Customs and the Border Patrol, who said they supported Trump Donald Trump Jr. then took the stage and praised his father for giving his employees opportunities he said they would not have elsewhere.
“I think those are issues that will continue to be worked out in the days ahead”, Pence said when asked what “tough and fair” means when it comes to deportations. “But once they’re inside the voting booth, it’s private – no one will ever know they voted for him”.
“So you have somebody who’s been in the country for 20 years, has done a great job, and everything else”, Trump said.
Trump is scheduled to appear at a 1 p.m. rally here. He was expected to give a big speech on immigration in Arizona, but it was moved to Colorado and planned for upcoming Thursday on August 25th.
“Do I talk to my friend who I’ve known for years and speak my mind?” Calling Clinton a proponent of “totally open borders”, he said she would “catch and release” those in the United States illegally and offer them more benefits than many veterans now receive from the government.
When asked about her preparations for the three debates with Trump, Clinton said she’s taking the match-up seriously but is getting ready for “wacky stuff”.
Trump’s reversal highlighted the difficulty he faces in trying to broaden his appeal without turning off his most fervent supporters. “I think it would be very hard for all of them to be deported”.
More importantly, perhaps we can now have a legitimate, non-racist discussion about immigration (both legal and illegal)-whether current levels of are suppressing wages for American citizens, a position long advocated by Trump’s guru on the subject, Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, or whether higher immigration is a net boon to the USA, both culturally and in terms of job creation. Addressing those voters, he said life in the United States for black people is “going in the wrong direction”.
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Campaign surrogates say the campaign will pivot after Labor Day and begin being seen in battleground states.
